LoudJupiter

Rocket And Missile System, Surface-to-air

2005-03-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

Guided surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, were under development when World War II ended, notably by the Germans, but were not sufficiently perfected to be used in combat. This changed in the 1950s and '60s with the rapid development of sophisticated SAM systems in the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain, and France. With other industrialized nations following suit,

India, Coastal areas

2005-03-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

Most of the coast of India flanks the Eastern and Western Ghats. In the northwest, however, much of coastal Gujarat lies to the northwest of the Western Ghats, extending around the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) and into the salt marshes of the Kathiawar and Kachchh (Kutch) peninsulas. These tidal marshes include the Great Rann of Kachchh along the border with Pakistan and the Little

Arrabal, Fernando

2005-03-13T05:56:00.000-08:00

Arrabal worked as a clerk in a paper company, then studied law at the University of Madrid. He turned to writing in the early 1950s, and in 1955 he went to study drama in Paris, where he remained.

Long Branch

2005-03-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

City, Monmouth county, eastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies along the Atlantic Ocean, 50 miles (80 km) south of New York City. Settled in 1668 on land purchased from the Delaware Indians, it was named for its location on the Long Branch of the South Shrewsbury River. Its development as a summer coastal resort began in the 1780s. By the 1830s gambling and horse racing brought an influx of visitors into

Vietnamese Literature

2005-03-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

The oral poetry tradition is purely

Dzungar

2005-03-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Jungar, Jüüngar, Dzhungar, or Dsongar, people of Central Asia, so called because they formed the left wing (dson, “left”; gar, “hand”) of the Mongol army. A western Mongol people whose home was the Ili River valley and Chinese Turkistan, they adopted Buddhism in the 17th century. They are for all practical purposes identical with the Oyrat (q.v.).

Alden, Isabella Macdonald

2005-03-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Isabella Macdonald was educated at home and at Oneida Seminary, Seneca Collegiate Institute at Ovid, and the Young Ladies

Natchez Trace Parkway

2005-03-02T02:32:00.000-08:00

Old road and one of the most scenic highways in the United States, about 450 mi (725 km) long, following an Indian trail, or trace, northeastward from Natchez, Miss., across northwestern Alabama to Nashville, Tenn. Originally an Indian trail, from 1800 to 1820 it was the most important highway in the Old Southwest—militarily, economically, and politically. With the advent of the river steamer

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Parable

2005-03-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

A.M. Hunter, The Parables: Then and Now (1971); Eta Linnemann, Gleichnisse Jesu, 3rd ed. (1964; Eng. trans., The Parables of Jesus, 1966); T.W. Manson (ed.), The Sayings of Jesus as Recorded in the Gospels According to St. Matthew and St. Luke (1949); D.C. Allen, The Legend of Noah: Renaissance Rationalism in Art, Science and Letters (1963); Heinz Politzer, Franz Kafka: Parable and Paradox (1962).

Hoorne, Filips Van Montmorency, Graaf Van

2005-02-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

A gentleman-in-waiting at the court of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V,

David De Mayrena, Marie-charles

2005-02-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

After defrauding French authorities in Saigon, David de Mayrena fled to Kontum in the Central Highlands, where he impressed the French missionaries and persuaded the members

Fabius Maximus Cunctator, Quintus

2005-02-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

Fabius was consul in 233 and 228 and censor

Winterhalter, Franz Xaver

2005-02-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Trained in Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich, Germany, Winterhalter entered court circles when in 1828 he became drawing master to Sophie, later grand duchess of Baden, at Karlsruhe. After 1834 he went to Paris and quickly became fashionable, at first under

Devadatta

2005-02-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

Devadatta is said to have joined the sangha along with Ananda, who was possibly his brother, in the 20th year of Gautama's ministry. Fifteen years later, strengthened by his friendship with the Crown Prince

Bottlenose Whale

2005-02-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

Any of four species of beaked whales distinguished by a bulbous forehead that drops sharply to the base of the beak. All inhabit deep offshore waters and eat squid, fish, and various bottom-dwelling animals. Bottlenose whales are capable of long, deep dives; biologists recorded the dive of one northern bottlenose (Hyperoodon ampullatus) to almost

Macchiaioli

2005-02-13T06:58:00.000-08:00

Group of 19th-century Florentine and Neopolitan painters who reacted against the rule-bound Italian academies of art and looked to nature for instruction. The Macchiaioli felt that patches (Italian: macchia) of colour were the most significant aspect of painting. They believed that the effect of a painting on the spectator should derive from the painted

Ukraine, Flag Of

2005-02-10T04:17:00.000-08:00

More than a thousand years ago a powerful state, Kievan Rus, was founded in an area that is now part of Ukraine. National flags did not exist at that time, but Kievan Rus used as its symbol a trident head, which was resurrected when Ukraine became independent in 1918 and in 1991. The first national flag for Ukraine was adopted in 1848 by revolutionaries who wanted its western parts to

Earth Sciences, Ore deposits and mineralogy

2005-02-08T05:10:00.000-08:00

The German scientist Georgius Agricola has with much justification been called the father of mineralogy. Of his seven geologic books, De natura fossilium (1546; “On Natural

Jouvet, Louis

2005-02-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

Beginning as a pharmacist at his parents' wishes, he soon turned to his real interest, the theatre, and, after being refused admission several times to the Conservatoire in Paris because of his stuttering, made his Paris debut in

Masoud, Ahmad Shah

2005-02-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Afghan resistance leader and politician (b. 1953, Bazarak, Afg.—death reported on Sept. 15, 2001, Takhar, Afg.), was a military leader in the Afghan mujahideen, first against the Soviets and the Soviet-backed Afghan government (1978–89) and then against the Taliban (from 1992). Masoud, an ethnic Tajik, studied engineering before the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and then moved to Pakistan for military

Cheng Chih-lung

2005-02-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

As a boy, Cheng found employment with the Europeans in the Portuguese settlement at Macau, where he was baptized and given the Christian name of Nicholas Gaspard. After leaving Macau, he joined a pirate band that

Submissive Behaviour

2005-02-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

Form of animal behaviour in which one individual attempts through appeasement displays to avoid injury by a dominant member of its own species. Appeasement displays are commonly found in species that are well armed (e.g., carnivores) and social. The displays, even when performed by adult males, commonly incorporate elements of infantile behaviour (e.g., in wolves, rolling

Zambezi River, Animal life

2005-01-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

The tiger fish is one of the few species found both above and below the Victoria Falls. Pike is predominant in the upper course of the river, as are yellowfish and barbel. Bream are now common both above and below the falls. Crocodiles abound in the Zambezi, though they generally avoid stretches of fast-running water. Hippopotamuses are also found in the upper and lower

Ear, Human, Transmission of sound by air conduction

2005-01-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

The outer ear directs sound waves from the external environment to the tympanic membrane (Figure 1). The auricle, the visible portion of the outer ear, collects sound waves and, with the concha, the cavity at the entrance to the external auditory canal, helps to funnel sound into the canal. Because of its small size and virtual immobility, the auricle in humans is less useful

Clarendon

2005-01-26T10:21:00.000-08:00

Haber, Fritz

2005-01-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

German physical chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1918) for his development of a method of synthesizing ammonia. With Carl Bosch, he invented a process for the large-scale production of ammonia for use in nitrogen fertilizer.

üsküdar

2005-01-21T06:36:00.000-08:00

Formerly Scutari, city, northwestern, Turkey. It lies at the foot of the Bulgurlu Hills on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus Strait opposite Istanbul. Known as Chrysopolis in ancient times, it was a dependency of the older and better-sited colony of Chalcedon (modern Kadiköy), where, according to the historian Polybius, the Athenians set up a toll for ships passing through the Bosporus. The

Tonga

2005-01-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

Officially Kingdom of Tonga, Tongan Pule'anga Fakatu'i 'o Tonga, also called Friendly Islands, country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of 169 islands divided into three main island groups: Tongatapu in the south, Ha'apai in the centre, and Vava'u in the north. Isolated islands include Niuafo'ou, Niuatoputapu, and Tafahi in the far north and 'Ata in the far south. Tonga's total land area of 290 square miles (750 square kilometres) is dispersed between latitudes 15° to

Offset Printing

2005-01-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

Also called offset lithography , or litho-offset in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (i.e., offset) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth, metal, leather, and rough paper. An American printer, Ira W. Rubel, of Nutley, N.J., accidentally discovered

Sucksdorff, Arne

2005-01-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Swedish motion-picture director important in the post-World War II revival of the Swedish cinema because of his internationally acclaimed sensitivity in photographing nature. His patiently photographed flowers, insects, birds, and animals are composed into films in which the rhythm of nature is dominant and man is only

Annelid, External features

2005-01-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

The body of an annelid is often described as a tube within a tube. The inner tube, or digestive tract, is separated from the outer tube, or body wall, by the coelom. The head region (prostomium) is followed by a series of segments similar to each other in appearance. The body in many species, especially in the sedentary polychaetes, is separated into two or three regions. The

Magnoliales

2005-01-11T01:46:00.000-08:00

Magnolia order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Magnoliidae. The order, which is generally regarded as including the most primitive angiosperms, contains 10 families, 181 genera, and about 3,050 species. All are woody shrubs, climbers, or trees. The families are Winteraceae, Degeneriaceae, Himantandraceae, Eupomatiaceae, Austrobaileyaceae, Magnoliaceae,

Boise National Forest

2005-01-09T01:18:00.000-08:00

Large area of evergreen coniferous forest in southwestern Idaho, U.S., located north and east of Boise. Established in 1908, it has an area of about 4,080 square miles (10,570 square km). Portions of both Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness and Sawtooth Wilderness Area are located in the forest. Payette National Forest borders it on the north, and Challis and Sawtooth national forests

Torch Cactus

2005-01-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

T. pasacana, a stout tree up to 10.5 m in height,

Cost

2005-01-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

In common usage, the monetary value of goods and services that producers and consumers purchase. In a basic economic sense cost is the measure of the alternative opportunities foregone in the choice of one good or activity over others. This fundamental cost is usually referred to as opportunity cost. For a consumer with a fixed income, the opportunity cost of purchasing

Biblical Literature, The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness

2005-01-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

One of the most interesting Dead Sea Scrolls is The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, a description of the eschatological war between the Sons of Light—i.e., the sect—and the rest of mankind, first with the other Jews and then with the Gentiles. At the end the Sons of Light will conquer the whole world, and in this war they will be helped by heavenly hosts;

Sarcoma

2005-01-01T03:14:00.000-08:00

Tumour of connective tissue (also called mesodermal, or mesenchymal, cells). This form of cancer is relatively rare in adults but is one of the more common malignancies among children; it often spreads to other tissues in the body. Sarcomas are generally divided into bone and soft-tissue tumours, the latter being much less common. Because mesenchymal cells form a variety

Ectoplasm

2004-12-31T15:45:00.000-08:00

In occultism, a mysterious, usually light-coloured, viscous substance that is said to exude from the body of a spiritualist medium in trance and may then take the shape of a face, a hand, or a complete body. It is normally visible only in the darkened atmosphere of a séance (q.v.). Ectoplasm is said to be the substance involved in the materialization of spiritual bodies, and

God In Christ, Church Of

2004-12-28T00:41:00.000-08:00

Predominantly black Pentecostal church that originated as an outgrowth of the Holiness movement. The date and place of the group's establishment is disputed between two member bodies, but the founding role of a dynamic preacher named Charles H. Mason is acknowledged by both. During the late 19th century, Mason led Holiness churches in Jackson, Miss., and Memphis, Tenn.

Wichale, Treaty Of

2004-12-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

Article XVII of the Treaty of Wichale stated that the emperor of Ethiopia “could” have

Palaeospondylus

2004-12-27T00:59:00.000-08:00

Genus of enigmatic fossil vertebrates that were very fishlike in appearance but of uncertain relationships. Palaeospondylus, from the Middle Devonian epoch (387 to 374 million years ago), has been found in the Old Red Sandstone rocks in the region of Achannaras, Scot. Hundreds of specimens are known, yet the position of this genus in relation to other fishlike vertebrates

Vaishnavism

2004-12-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

A major characteristic of Vaishnavism is the strong part played by bhakti, or religious devotion. The ultimate goal of the devotee is to escape from the cycle of birth and death so as to enjoy the presence

Bridgman, Percy Williams

2004-12-25T01:07:00.000-08:00

Bridgman was the son of a journalist. He entered Harvard University in 1900, receiving his M.A. in 1905 and his Ph.D. in 1908. His experimental work on static high pressures was begun

Hypothalamus

2004-12-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

The hypothalamus and pituitary

Star, Variations in stellar size

2004-12-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

Table 1 lists data pertaining to the 20 brightest

Yalta

2004-12-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Jalta, city, Crimea, southern Ukraine. It faces the Black Sea on the southern shore of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlement on the site dates from prehistoric times, but modern Yalta developed only in the early 19th century, becoming a town in 1838. Its favourable climate with mild winters and its scenic location between sea and mountains make Yalta one of the most popular holiday and

Muhammad Ibn Tughluq

2004-12-21T04:06:00.000-08:00

Second sultan of the Tughluq dynasty (reigned 1325–51), who briefly extended the rule of the Delhi sultanate of northern India over most of the subcontinent. As a result of misguided administrative actions and unexampled severity toward his opponents, he eventually lost his authority in the south; at the end of his reign, the sultanate had begun to

Alasehir

2004-12-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

Town, western Turkey. It lies in the Kuzu River valley, at the foot of the Boz Mountain. Founded about 150 BC by a king of Pergamum, it became an important town of the Byzantine Empire. It was not taken by the Ottomans until after all other cities of Asia Minor had surrendered to Ottoman rule. Conquered by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1402, it was recaptured under the Ottoman sultan Murad II (reigned

Antelope

2004-12-18T18:47:00.000-08:00

Antelopes are even-toed, hoofed mammals that

Furniture, Clocks

2004-12-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Clocks are considered furnishings if the movement is enclosed within a case, which need not necessarily be of wood. Clocks can be divided into table clocks and long-case clocks. There were two creative centres for table clocks, namely England and France. In 17th- and 18th-century France, the table clock became an object of monumental design, the best examples of which are

Daudet, Alphonse

2004-12-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

French short-story writer and novelist, now remembered chiefly as the author of sentimental tales of provincial life in the south of France.

Shochiku Co., Ltd.

2004-12-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

Leading Japanese motion-picture studio, the films of which are usually home-centred dramas aimed toward an audience of women. The company was formed in 1902 as a production company for kabuki performances. The business was expanded in 1920 to include motion-picture production, and, shortly afterward, the corporation established the Shochiku Kinema Company to train actors

Sexton, Anne

2004-12-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

Anne Harvey attended Garland Junior College for a year before her marriage in 1948 to Alfred M. Sexton II. She studied with the poet Robert Lowell at Boston University and also worked as a model and a librarian. Although she had written some

Shochiku Co., Ltd.

2004-12-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

The EEC was created in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome, which was signed by Belgium

Literature

2004-12-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

The most distinctive feature of Italian literature in 2001 was the publication of several novels whose settings in the recent past served as a framework for a reflection on history. Davide Longo's Un mattino a Irgalem takes place during the Italian colonization of Ethiopia, a topic traditionally neglected by historians and creative writers. In the action a short and

Girder

2004-12-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

In building construction, a horizontal main supporting beam that carries a vertical concentrated load. See beam.

Mcluhan, Marshall

2004-12-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

In full Herbert Marshall McLuhan Canadian communications theorist and educator, whose aphorism “the medium is the message” summarized his view of the potent influence of television, computers, and other electronic disseminators of information in shaping styles of thinking and thought, whether in sociology, art, science, or religion. He regarded

Barante, Amable-guillaume-prosper Brugière, Baron De

2004-12-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

Educated at the École Polytechnique

Vigo

2004-12-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

Port town and naval station, Pontevedra provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Galicia, northwestern Spain. Vigo lies along the southeastern shore of the Vigo Inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Pontevedra city. It was attacked by the English admiral Sir Francis Drake in 1585 and 1589. In 1702 a British-Dutch fleet under Sir George Rooke and James Butler,

Condé, Henri I De Bourbon, 2e Prince De (2nd Prince Of)

2004-12-08T10:49:00.000-08:00

His father's death left him and his cousin Henry of Navarre (the future Henry IV) as titular leaders of the Huguenots. After the Peace of Saint-Germain (1570) Condé retired to Béarn and married

Gabrieli, Andrea

2004-12-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

He was born in the Canareggio quarter of Venice, but nothing is known about

Elburz Mountains

2004-12-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Alborz, Albourz, Alburz, or Elburs, Persian Reshteh-ye Kuhha-ye Alborz, major mountain range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 km) long. The range, most broadly defined, extends in an arc eastward from the frontier with Turkmenistan southwest of the Caspian Sea to the Khorasan region of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, where the range merges into the Aladagh, the more southerly of the two principal ranges there. More commonly, however, the

Gas

2004-12-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

The best elementary discussion of the kinetic theory of gases is T.G. Cowling, Molecules in Motion (1960), clearly explaining the fundamental physical ideas without excessive mathematical manipulation. Other elementary books include Joel H. Hildebrand, An Introduction to Molecular Kinetic Theory (1963); Sidney Golden, Elements of the Theory of Gases (1964); and Walter Kauzmann, Kinetic Theory of Gases (1966). Two excellent books make greater demands on the mathematical background of the reader: James Jeans, An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases (1940, reissued 1982), which is an abridged and slightly simplified version of the author's classic The Dynamical Theory of Gases, 4th ed. (1925, reissued 1954); and Richard D. Present, Kinetic Theory of Gases (1958), an excellent though selective textbook. The historical literature is especially rich; the following works may be profitably consulted: J.S. Rowlinson (ed.), J.D. van der Waals: On the Continuity of the Gaseous and Liquid States (1988), a translation of van der Waals's 1873 Dutch thesis with a marvelous extended introductory essay by the editor that is unique in the field and surveys modern developments in the theory of liquids and solutions; Stephen G. Brush (ed.), Kinetic Theory, 3 vol. (1965–72), a set of famous historical papers along with introductory commentaries and summaries by the editor; Robert Lindsay (ed.), Early Concepts of Energy in Atomic Physics (1979), selections from famous historical papers—many of them omitted from the previous work—together with the editor's comments; and Stephen G. Brush, The Kind of Motion We Call Heat: A History of the Kinetic Theory of Gases in the 19th Century, 2 vol. (1976, reissued 1986), a thorough historical account without much mathematics, and Statistical Physics and the Atomic Theory of Matter: From Boyle and Newton to Landau and Onsager (1983), covering a much broader range and requiring a thorough scientific background. More advanced professional treatments include Sydney Chapman and T.G. Cowling, The Mathematical Theory of Non-uniform Gases, 3rd ed. (1970, reprinted 1990), the acknowledged classic on the modern kinetic theory of gases based on the Enskog-Chapman approach; Joseph O. Hirschfelder, Charles F. Curtiss, and R. Byron Bird, Molecular Theory of Gases and Liquids (1954, reissued with added notes 1964), a monumental compendium of detailed results on equations of state, transport properties of gases, and intermolecular forces, especially valuable as a reference; J.H. Ferziger and H.G. Kaper, Mathematical Theory of Transport Processes in Gases (1972), successfully combining the best features of the previous two works; Carlo Cercignani, The Boltzmann Equation and Its Applications (1988), by a mathematician, one of the few books that concerns itself with free-molecule gases and the transition to continuum behaviour; and Frederick R.W. McCourt et al., Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Polyatomic Gases, 2 vol. (1990–91), an account of the extension of the Enskog-Chapman theory to include truly molecular shape effects, including the effects of external electric and magnetic fields and of surface collisions. Special topics are addressed in Martin Knudsen, The Kinetic Theory of Gases, 3rd ed. (1950), a series of lectures from 1933 on rarefied gas phenomena, by one of the experimental pioneers in the subject; K.E. Grew and T.L. Ibbs, Thermal Diffusion in Gases (1952), a short monograph on one of the more intriguing special topics of the kinetic theory of gases; J.S. Rowlinson, The Perfect Gas (1963), emphasizing the internal mechanics of molecules as related to the calculation of the thermodynamic properties of gases by statistical mechanics; and E.A. Mason and T.H. Spurling, The Virial Equation of State (1969), emphasizing experimental measurements and the detailed connection with intermolecular forces.

Xingu River

2004-12-03T02:00:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Rio Xingu, river in Mato Grosso and Pará states, Brazil. The river rises on the Planalto (plateau) do Mato Grosso, in the drainage basin framed by the Serra do Roncador and the Serra Formosa mountain ranges. Formed by several headstreams, principally the Curiseu, Batovi, and Romuro rivers, the Xingu meanders generally northward for approximately 1,300 mi (2,100 km), emptying into the Amazon

Zambezi River

2004-12-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

The first non-Africans to reach the Zambezi were Arab traders, who utilized the river's lower reaches from the 10th century onward. They were followed in the 16th century by the Portuguese, who hoped to use the river to develop a trade in ivory, gold, and slaves. Until the 19th century, the river, then called the Zanbere, was believed to flow south from a vast inland sea that was also

Mexico, Relief

2004-12-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

Mexico is located in one of the Earth's most dynamic tectonic areas. It is a part of the circum-Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region of active volcanism and frequent seismic activity. Towering peaks, such as Citlaltépetl (also called Orizaba; 18,701 feet [5,700 metres]) and Popocatépetl (17,883 feet [5,452 metres]), are extremely young in geologic terms (late Tertiary) and are examples of the volcanic forces

Kwazulu/natal

2004-11-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

Formerly Natal, province of the Republic of South Africa, occupying the southeastern portion of the country. It is bounded on the east by the Indian Ocean, on the south by Eastern province, on the west by Lesotho and Free State province, on the northwest by Mpumalanga province, and on the north by Swaziland and Mozambique. Within KwaZulu/Natal is an enclave of Eastern province consisting

Catatumbo River

2004-11-29T01:35:00.000-08:00

Spanish Río Catatumbo, river rising in northern Colombia. It flows northeast across the Venezuelan border, crosses rich oil-bearing regions in the Maracaibo Lowland, and empties into Lake Maracaibo after a course of about 210 miles (338 km). It is navigable in its lower course and receives Zulia River 4 miles (6 km) west of Encontrados, Venez., in the Maracaibo Lowland.

Mahabad

2004-11-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Mehabad, formerly Saujbulagh, or Savojbolagh, city, northwestern Iran. The city lies south of Lake Urmia in a fertile, narrow valley at an elevation of 4,272 feet (1,302 m). There are a number of unexcavated tells, or mounds, on the plain of Mahabad in this part of the Azerbaijan region. The region was the centre of the Mannaeans, who flourished in the early 1st millennium BC. The city is now mostly populated by Kurds. The area has been the scene

Davidescu, Nicolae

2004-11-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

Romanian poet and novelist whose early poems, Inscriptii (1916), showed the influence of Charles Baudelaire. Among his prose works the novel Zâna din fundul lacului (1912; “The Fairy at the Bottom of the Lake”) was an exercise in symbolism, and Vioara muta (1928; “The Muted Violin”), in social psychology. In the epic Cântecul omului (1928–37; “The Song of Man”), he aimed at re-creating world history.

Ashfield

2004-11-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

District, administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, England. The name is ancient and appeared in the names of the two major towns within the district even before its formation. The two towns are the coal-mining centres of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield, forming, as does the whole district, part of the heavily industrialized western rim of the

Spondylolisthesis

2004-11-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

Forward slipping of the body of one of the lumbar (lower back) vertebrae on the subjacent vertebra or on the sacrum, the triangular bone at the base of the spinal column. The condition is often associated with incompleteness of the vertebral arch, which surrounds the spinal cord. Pressure transmitted to the arch from above encourages slippage. Deformity (lordosis)

Marine Ecosystem, Geography, oceanography, and topography

2004-11-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

The shape of the oceans and seas of the world has changed significantly throughout the past 600 million years. According to the theory of plate tectonics, the crust of the Earth is made up of many dynamic plates (see plate tectonics; and earth: The surface of the Earth as a mosaic of plates). There are two types of plates—oceanic and continental—which float on the surface of

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer

2004-11-23T04:23:00.000-08:00

A Polish Jew, Jhabvala immigrated to England with her family in 1939. After receiving an M.A. in English (1951) from Queen Mary College, London, she married an Indian architect and moved to India, where she lived for the next 24 years. After 1975 she lived

D-day

2004-11-21T17:23:00.000-08:00

(in World War II), first day of the Allied landing in Normandy, France. See Normandy Invasion.

Veneti

2004-11-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

Ancient Celtic people who lived in what is now the Morbihan district of modern Brittany. By the time of Julius Caesar they controlled all Atlantic trade to Britain. They submitted to Caesar in 57 BC; but the next winter, disturbed by his interest in Britain, they seized some Roman commissariat officers and, with the support of several maritime states, attempted to regain

Xenicidae

2004-11-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

Formerly Acanthisittidae, bird family of the order Passeriformes; its members are commonly known as New Zealand wrens. The three living species are the rock wren (Xenicus gilviventris) and the rare bush wren (X. longipes) on South Island and, common to both islands, the rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris). A fourth species, the Stephen Island wren (X. lyalli), was discovered in 1894 by a lighthouse keeper and

Athanasius The Athonite, Saint

2004-11-19T10:31:00.000-08:00

Originally named Abraham, he took the monastic name of Athanasius when he retired to Mt. Athos after forsaking the sophisticated, urban monastic life in Constantinople;

Dahl, Roald

2004-11-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

Following his graduation from Repton, a renowned British public school, in 1932, Dahl avoided a university education and joined an expedition to Newfoundland. He worked from 1937 to 1939 in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika (now in Tanzania), but he enlisted

Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius

2004-11-16T04:42:00.000-08:00

Eckhel was educated at the Jesuit gymnasium in Vienna, where he had entered the Jesuit order at age 14. He taught grammar at various collegiate schools, but because of poor health he gave up teaching to

West Chester University Of Pennsylvania

2004-11-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

Public, coeducational institution of higher learning in West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is part of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education. The university comprises the College of Arts and Sciences and schools of Education, Health Sciences, Music, and Business and Public Affairs. In addition to undergraduate studies, West Chester offers some 70 master's

Jannings, Emil

2004-11-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

Jannings was reared in Görlitz, Austria, where he began his stage career. He joined a traveling stock company and in 1906 began acting for Max Reinhardt, the leading German theatrical director, in Berlin. He made his film

Space Perception

2004-11-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

Human beings have been interested in the perception of objects in space at least since the question

Guadalupe, Basilica Of

2004-11-12T18:43:00.000-08:00

Officially Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe , Spanish Basílica de Guadalupe , or Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Roman Catholic church that is the chief religious centre of Mexico, located in Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, a northern neighbourhood of Mexico City. The church was erected near the spot where two apparitions of the Virgin are said to have appeared to an Indian convert named Juan Diego in December 1531 and commanded that a church be built. The second apparition resulted

Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid

2004-11-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

Sayyid also spelled Syad, or Syed, Ahmad also spelled Ahmed Muslim educator, jurist, and author, founder of the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, and the principal motivating force behind the revival of Indian Islam in the late 19th century. His works, in Urdu, include Essays on the Life of Mohammed (1870) and commentaries on the Bible and on the Qur'an. In 1888 he was made a Knight Commander

Skate

2004-11-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

In sports, one of a pair of bladelike devices worn on the feet for skating on ice or, when wheeled, for skating on a surface other than ice. See ice skating; roller-skating.

Aquavit

2004-11-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Aquavite, or Akvavit, also called Snaps, flavoured, distilled liquor, clear to pale yellow in colour, dry in flavour, and ranging in alcohol content from about 42 to 45 percent by volume. It is distilled from a fermented potato or grain mash, redistilled in the presence of flavouring agents, filtered with charcoal, and usually bottled without aging. Various aromatic flavourings are employed, usually including

North Little Rock

2004-11-09T03:52:00.000-08:00

City, Pulaski county, central Arkansas, U.S., on the Arkansas River opposite Little Rock. It was settled in 1812 as De Cantillon, became Huntersville in 1853, and was later renamed Argenta for the Hotel Argenta, built there in the late 1850s. The community developed after the arrival of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad in 1853 and later became the site of the freight classification yards

Sarapion, Saint

2004-11-07T17:53:00.000-08:00

Sarapion was a champion with St. Athanasius of Alexandria of orthodox doctrine in the 4th-century theological controversy over Arianism. A key figure in early monasticism, together with his Egyptian contemporary, St. Anthony, Sarapion

Sicard, Roch-ambroise Cucurron, Abbé

2004-11-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

From 1786 to 1789, Sicard, an abbé, was principal of a Bordeaux school for deaf-mutes. He then succeeded Abbé de l'Epée in Paris. Although he long supported teaching deaf-mutes through sign language, Sicard turned to the oral method toward the end of his long career.

Catabolism

2004-11-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

Energy is released in three phases. In the first, such large molecules as those of proteins,

Medicine, Levels of health care

2004-11-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

In the curative domain there are various forms of medical practice. They may be thought of generally as forming a pyramidal structure, with three tiers representing increasing degrees of specialization and technical sophistication but catering to diminishing numbers of patients as they are filtered out of the system at a lower level. Only those patients who

Agha Mohammad Khan

2004-11-04T03:52:00.000-08:00

At the age of six Agha Mohammad was castrated on the orders of 'Adil Shah to prevent him from becoming a political rival, but this disability did not hinder his career. In 1757 he became the de

Ford, Edmund Brisco

2004-11-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

Ford joined the faculty at the University of Oxford in 1927; he was made professor of ecological genetics in 1963, becoming emeritus professor in 1969. He

Yang Chu

2004-11-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Yang Zhu one of the early Taoist philosophers. Yang has been infamous in Chinese history for what was thought to be his extreme hedonism. This characterization of Yang was fostered by the great Confucian philosopher Mencius (c. 371–289 BC), the second Sage (after Confucius) of China, who condemned Yang Chu for upholding the principle of “each for himself.” According to Mencius,

Playa

2004-11-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Enclosed basins of salt and clay accumulation may originate from numerous causes. Tectonic causes include faulting, as in the East African Rift Valley and Death Valley, and warping, as in Lake Eyre in Australia, Lake Chad in central Africa, and Shatt al-Jarid (Chott Djerid) in Tunisia. Wind deflation can produce shallow basins with downwind dunes, as in southeastern Australia.

Arabian Religion

2004-10-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

In the polytheistic religions of Arabia most of the gods were originally associated with heavenly bodies, to which were ascribed powers of fecundity, protection, or revenge against enemies. Aside from a few deities common to various populations, the pantheons show a marked local particularism. But many religious practices were in general use. The study of these

Lewis, John L.

2004-10-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

The son of immigrants from Welsh mining towns, Lewis left school in the seventh grade and went to work in the mines at age 15. In the coal-mining town of Panama,

Judaism, Creativity

2004-10-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

As has been noted, this “creed,” or “confession of faith,” underscores in the first benediction the relation of God to the world as that of Creator to creation. “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates all things.” It adds the assertion that his activity is not in the past but is ongoing and continuous,

Coal, Properties

2004-10-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Many of the properties of coal are strongly rank-dependent, although other factors such as maceral composition and the presence of mineral matter also influence its properties. Several techniques have been developed for studying the physical and chemical properties of coal, including density measurements, X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron